The Download Generation

Downloading stuff is all the rage right now. Music, movies, books...and videogames. Pulling electrons from the ether and assembling them into entertainment. It sounds cool, and in some ways it is, but I just don't know about it. I'm from the generation that needs and wants a physical object, such as a disk with the information on it. It makes me feel safer, somehow. Whereas if I were to download something, I would be afraid of it getting lost somehow, back in the ether. Call me old school, or just old, I'm not part of the download generation.
Downloading is becoming a big thing in videogames, with entire videogames able to be downloaded to hard drives and downloadable content (or DLC) for games that are sold on disk. I have to admit that downloadable games have their good points; mainly that games that would not have a chance of hell of ever being published because they are too quirky or not a sequel, can be distributed electronically at a fraction of the price. These games are the indie films of the gaming world, and that is a very good thing as developers fall back on sequels and blockbuster games that need to guarenteed they will make back the cost of developing the game, which is averaging 20 to 30 million and only getting higher. The downloadable/indie games are needed if there is to be any creativitity and imagination left in games.
What really bothers me is DLC. It allows game makers to be lazy, either by releasing patches that fix bugs that should have been fixed before the game was released, or by adding stuff that should have been in the original gane to begin with. Sometimes the DLC is free, and sometimes you have to pay for it. So let me get this straight:I pay 60 dollars for a buggy game and then pay an extra 10 for an extra level or new skins? You know what:fuck you and your game.
I long for a simpler time when you had a cartridge or a disk and that was it. Granted, I'm still not sure how they become games when inserted into the game system, could be some kind of weird gaming magic mojo for all I know. But you still have a physical object that own. If you download something, what exactly do you own? Air? Electrons? And you don't have to concern yourself with downloading more crap to your hard drive to fix bugs or race an extra track.
Still, I'll try not be completely negative. Indie games are good and a balm to the sting of expensive videogame sequels. It would be nice if they could be on disks though. In a kinder world...
(And yes, the irony of these words being in cyberspoace and not typed on paper is not lost on me. But who would read my rants if they were typed on a typewriter at home? Not that I expect these blogs to be read either. Ranting into the dark void, I am.)